St. Martin & St. Rose Parish
San Antonio TX

Our Parish invites you to worship with us on Sundays and during the week. We are almost at the corner of Nogalitos and Theo in the southwest of San Antonio. Join our small community of Catholics seeking to keep our faith alive!

St. Martin and St. Rose Catholic Church is a Parish of the Buffalo-Pittsburgh Diocese of the Polish National Catholic Church , established in 1897 by Bishop Francis Hodur for Polish nationals, and became known as the Polish National Catholic Church. Our parish in San Antonio was established by the religious community of the Samaritan Ministers, Missionaries and Oblates of Prayer to serve the many needs of our Hispanic population.

Our faith and tradition is Catholic, and our Church, along with the Roman Catholic Church, mutually recognize the validity of all the seven Sacraments. Our Masses (Eucharistic Celebrations) are in English and Spanish (and in Latin when requested). All our rituals are the same as in the Roman Catholic Church.

We believe in small basic Christian communities, we pray the rosary, have novenas and benedictions. We receive the Holy Eucharist under both species and the people are free to kneel or stand to receive the Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

We have great devotion and respect for Our Lady, the Blessed Mother of Our Lord Jesus, and to the saints who have modeled for us how to live the Christian Life.

As a jurisdiction we accept married men to the priesthood, married priests from apostolic churches to the priesthood, and married priests may also become bishops. We are under the administration of a Prime Bishop, with Church headquarters in Scranton, PA. We have five dioceses in the U. S. and Canada, with numerous parishes. We also have parishes in Norway and in Italy.

 

http://www.smsrpncc.com/  

 

The origin of St. Martin and St. Rose Parish goes back to November 3, 1981 when a group of Roman Catholic laity, together with Reverend R. Augustin Sicard (an ex-Marianist), began a group of consecrated individuals. This group became known as the Samaritan Ministers and Missionaries, organized in honor of St. Martin de Porres and St. Rose of Lima, two Peruvian Dominican religious. The first establishment was on northwest San Antonio. By 1990 they had outgrown their place, and began a search for a larger place. At that time Father had been working with Father Rafael Ruiz at Lutheran General Hospital. Together with Father Celestino Treviño, an ex-Franciscan, they began to dialogue with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) for a Church. In 1993 ELCA vacated a property in southwest San Antonio and asked us to look at the site. Within that same month, a group of the parish committee got together and made arrangements to see the site. In May of 1994 we agreed to move forward with the purchase of the property, which included the Church building, a rectory apartment, and a hall. The 25 years note on the mortgage was carried by ELCA.

During the same period of time in 1994, the parish committee had begun dialogue with Bishop Thaddeus Peplowski for possible incorporation with the Polish National Catholic Church. Between 1972 and 1981, Father had worked with PNCC members in Toronto, Canada, and had made a previous attempt at dialogue with Prime Bishop Francis Rowinski. This dialogue was never completed, and it was not until 1995 that direct contact was made with the Bishop Ordinary of the Buffalo-Pittsburgh Diocese. Bishop Peplowski set up a number of meetings, and in June of 1996 St. Martin and St. Rose was officially established as a parish of the PNCC. From 1994 to 2005 mortgage payments were made to ELCA, but in 2005 they forgave our mortgage and allowed us to keep the parish and hall at the price of the payments already made.

The Samaritan Missionaries have made contact with a number of Roman Catholic diocesan priests in Mexico, and has helped establish three (3) parishes in the name of St. Martin and St. Rose Parish. These parish are now named: St. Rose of Lima, Immaculate Heart of Mary, and Holy Cross. Many donations have been made of monies and property goods for these establishments, and a number of missionary trips have been made on behalf of St. Martin and St. Rose Parish.